Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa was born in December 1977 into a family of small farmers. It is believed he grew up using the name Shingirai Chirume. His parents are elders in the Apostolic Faith Mission Church in Muzarabani district of Mashonaland Central Province. In 1993, Makandiwa and other boys of his age spent six months with the late pastor Mukwaira on "crusades".
Makandiwa, after completing his secondary education at Zengeza High school in Chitungwiza, returned to help his parents till the land. In Muzarabani, Makandiwa started taking God’s word seriously and the next four years turned his life around.
With his parents he organised gospel crusades and preached from home. In 1995, he was reportedly called in a vision by God to deliver his people from the bondage of Satan and teamed up with local AFM Pastor Rev. Munyengeterwa on gospel crusades. In 2000, Makandiwa enrolled at the AFM’s Living Waters Theological Seminary in Harare, graduating in 2002. During the same year, he married Ruth Makawa.
After finishing his pastoral studies, Rev Makandiwa chose to go to Matabeleland and worked as an assistant pastor under the supervision of Rev. Madzivire, who is now the president of AFM. "I started ministry in Bulawayo in 2003. When I moved to Harare in 2006 it was Evangelist Chiweshe who welcomed me into the province he was heading in Chitungwiza. And he gave me an assembly to pastor. As my overseer I could see his effective leadership style as he led by example. He could call me any time to lay his hands on me or give guidance. I would not hesitate to say that of all the men I have come across in Zimbabwe, here was the only man I can boldly declare was full of wisdom and exhibited a high level of maturity." echoed Prophet Makandiwa, as he was expressing how he felt over the death of Evangelist P Chiweshe.
After ordination, he was given an assembly in Shangani, where he became the talk of the neighbourhood with his demonstrations of the power of God. In 2004, he was transferred to How Mine and subsequently to Hebron Assembly in Chitungwiza.
Prophet Makandiwa started his own Church, called United Family Interdenominational Ministries in August 2008. By then it was just more of a lunch hour fellowship and members would meet at the Anglican Cathedral, Cnr Sam Nujoma / Nelson Mandela. From the first day, the hall was filled to capacity (approximately 600 people) and by the following day the fellowship encountered an overflow as people swarmed from the Parliament side just to get a glimpse of proceedings. By the second day people would come as early as 1100hrs for a lunch fellowship which only started at 1300hrs. This phenomenon has stuck as a benchmark to date as people flock The City Sports Centre (current venue) as early as 0600hrs for the service which begins at 1000hrs.
Between 2009 and 2010, other vibrant Pastors within AFM also followed suit, and launched their own "fellowship" services, and this did not go down well with the supreme leadership of AFM, which is known and the AFM Apostolic Council. In early 2010, Makandiwa who was still a pastor by then, was suspended from Ministering at the AFM Hebron assembly (in Chitungwiza), after he failed to honour the Council's resolution that no pastor shall run or lead an interdenominational organisation. This must have been the time when the Prophet went to Ghana to have a meeting with His Spiritual Father, Prophet Victor Boateng, who inspired him and spiritually advised him on how to set up his own church. Upon his return from Ghana he began using the title "Prophet", since he was known as a Pastor during the time that he was with AFM.
There are also some who claim that his expulsion from the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) was a result of serious differences over the source of his "healing" powers, while other churches accuse him of "stealing their people". Always controversial, some men have gone so far as to accuse him of ruining their marriages by exposing their extra-marital affairs to their wives through his prophecies. His followers say these allegations are a result of jealousy. Some pastors and leaders of various churches have also questioned the origin of the power Prophet E Makandiwa uses to perform his miracles or prophecies, this was further worsened when the media competed in writing articles about Prophet Makandiwa soon after he launched his Spiritual Link Airtime Juice Cards in August 2011, a move that POTRAZ said could have violated the laws of the country.
In April 2011, Makandiwa led a National All Night Prayer at the National Sports Stadium, where he filled the 60,000 seater stadium with his followers from all parts of the nation. This was the forth time the National Sports Stadium had been full to capacity since 1980, (the first time was during the 1980 Independence celebrations, second time was in 2010 when Zimbabwe played soccer against Brazil and the third time was also in 2010 when ZAOGA hosted its 50 years jubilee celebrations).
